Okay, it’s my turn to crow, to beat my breast, to confirm to all of you skeptics how smart I am. I gotta do this because after all of these years, I remain an insecure person who needs the kudos where I can get them. I need to claim victory when I’m right about something. I blame my shortcomings on my dead mother who for many years tortured me mentally by telling me how worthless I was. She also beat the crap out of me but, well, I digress. Let me get off of the couch now.

In my last post entitled “Shall We Dance?” I talked about how the pro-choice groups were in a state of panic because Randall Terry, the now totally emasculated founder of the now practically defunct Operation Rescue, had a meeting with the Chief of Staff of the incoming Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner. I told everyone to calm down, that such a meeting was par for the course and that Terry would sent on his way, thinking he made some progress when, in fact, nothing dramatic would happen.

So, this morning in the New York Times, there is a headline entitled “Push for Stricter Abortion Limits is Expected in House.” OMG! Terry has done it! They’re doing what he demanded – the end of legal abortion is in sight! But then I took the unusual approach of actually reading the article and what I discovered confirmed exactly what I predicted in my last blog (applause).

The article notes that Representative Joe Pitts will now head the subcommittee that considers much of the anti-abortion legislation. And, guess what he is going to do? He is going to assure that no federal dollars will be used to pay for abortions. How radical! What a guy! No doubt he is now Randall Terry’s hero and will soon receive a framed “Certificate of Appreciation” from Operation Rescue, assuming they can afford the paper and the frame.

Specifically, Pitts is targeting the new health care reform law and wants to insure that no one could use the

Randall Terry

new system to get an abortion. Now, I don’t like this idea but my question is: is that the best you got? After all, no federal dollars have been spent for abortion for decades thanks to the late Congressman Henry Hyde. This is your “pro-life agenda?”

Now, I don’t want to hear from the pro-choicers about how unfair this would be to women. I get that piece, spare me the political rants. You just gotta face it, we don’t have the votes to stop everything. But if this is all they are going to do, then I say go ahead and waste your time on something that will hardly affect anyone. I mean, the fact is that the new health care centers will not even be offering abortion services folks. Just take this “defeat” and claim victory.

So, as I predicted, Randy Terry is probably telling his buddies how influential he is and, as I predicted, the new Congress won’t do anything that will curtail abortion rights in this country.

Rogelio (in #20) to pray is very much like dropping a bowling ball from a great height: It might achieve the end you want, and it might not. You have no control over it. However, the act of praying has been proven to alter the mood of the one who prays in many situations.

I can’t vouch for the efficacy of anyone’s prayers, much less my own. But I can stand by what observers have measured and draw inferences from those findings.

As opposed to praying for a child, caring for one is like aiming a bowling ball down the alley– one intends for one’s actions to produce a beneficial result, and one can measure one’s success. People can judge the results of my care for unwanted children by many measures, not merely by what I say about how much I care for them.

And if you needed money from me, I judge you to be the sort of person I would give it to. If you asked me to pray for you, I feel I’d be wasting my time.

one of the problems that people have when they pray is that they are putting god in a box.

too often people pray for a particular thing and if they do not see the result that they want instantly, they think the prayer was not answered.

people forget that god gave us all free will.

i do not pray necessarily for a woman not to abort. i pray that god will open her heart to life for the baby.

i pray that if she chooses to abort that she will come out of it unwounded.

i pray that if she comes out of it wounded, that god will be merciful and heal her wounds.

i pray that if someone approaches me, that i answer their approach with his love and am able to guide them to others who will do the same, regardless of their choices.

i pray for the doctors and staff that god will open their hearts to life.

i pray that he will protect them against those who wish harm for them.

i pray for all of them, mercy and forgiveness, just as i pray for his mercy and forgiveness for my own transgressions.

i pray for many things there.

i pray not just with my head, but with my heart.

when we pray, do we pray for what we want, or for what god will allow for that person, keeping in mind his will, which must include the free will that he gave to them?

when i feel impatient with a person, do i pray for patience ( which is sure to bring trials that will test patience ) or do i pray for the wisdom to know how to properly deal with a person or situation that tests my patience?

it also helps when we know more about a person.

so for example, you disapprove of me praying in front of clinics because you feel that i am aborticentric.

if you prayed for me, would you pray that i become pro-choice again?

would you pray that i stop praying in front of clinics?

would you pray that god leads me to be more active in other pro-life channels, such as a new senior that needs me on saturday mornings, or a new class with children that can only be done on saturday mornings, or a need at the soup kitchen that i volunteer at that desperately needs help during the time that i would otherwise be at the clinic?

would you pray that god uses my talents and passions in a way that will give glory to him?

prayer never falls on deaf ears, my brother.

it’s just that sometimes we don’t get the answer that we want to see because we are praying the wrong way.

as far as people measuring how successful you are with the children you care for… well, i don’t think that it can be measured properly by man.

the love that you give to them might not be seen in your lifetime, but rest assured that there will come a time when the difference that you make to them will be seen when they pass that love on to someone else.

Rogelio, it would be rather telling about aborticentrism if you don’t also pray in front of orphanages and homeless shelters, where there are real children with real problems that you could do something about.

well, one of the differences is that i am allowed IN the soup kitchen and the class and the homes of my seniors, and i do pray in those places.

but i am not allowed In the abortion clinic for reasons of security.

i don’t know of any orphanages in my area.

something to consider about the clinics is that the prayers i offer there are not just for the babies.

they are also for the staff and for the women who are there for abortions, and there is a lot of help to offer those women, even if they choose to abort anyway.

just because they abort doesn’t mean that their situations that made them seek an abortion has gone away. and given that their lives have value, they should be offered the help that they needed to begin with.

regardless of the choice that they made, they still matter.

maybe if they had been given to begin with, they would not have sought abortions. but even if they would have still sought them, they still matter.

in this particular case, because i have to be present if when i am praying someone makes the choice to come to me, in order for me to direct her to choices that can help change her circumstances that make her seek an abortion, because the clinic that i pray in front of will not offer her those choices.

i need to be present because if while i am praying someone makes the choice to approach me after her abortion and either regrets it and is in need of healing, for me to direct her to someone who can help, or if they don’t, for me to let them know that if regret comes later on, that there is healing to be had.

Responding to the last entry in #12. I go to two death mills, Rog. At Planned Parenthood in Reading, I’m a little like you. I stand quietly holding a sign that says “Men regret lost fatherhood”; the other side says “Women Do Regret Abortion.” A woman there does all the talking. However, I’m not nearly so successful as you and I would love to see you in action. But consider — you’re already in hole with the killers’ helpers on this blog in spite of how nice you are to them. And that entry will make the hole that much deeper.

i have been in groups that banned me for not liking the answers that i gave to the questions they asked.

i am in a group that claims to be totally unbiased, but can only answer questions i pose with ad hominem attacks, and deliberate twisting of what i say.

i have been in groups that warn me not to make threats or use foul language that i never made nor used, but then allowed others to make threats and curse me, and dismiss it because some pro-lifers are venomous at clinics.

this blog and kate’s blog are among the most tolerant venues that i have ever encountered.

the only issue that i have seen anyone here address is disapproval of me praying in front of abortion clinics.

“this blog and kate’s blog are among the most tolerant venues that i have ever encountered.

the only issue that i have seen anyone here address is disapproval of me praying in front of abortion clinics.

what is this “hole” that you speak of?”

First, this blog yes but Kate’s blog no. She’s tolerates you because you say things she likes.

Second, common Rog, the obvious hole: you do something no killers’ helper likes. You go to the death mills, but not to help kill. And now telling everybody how effective you are in carrying the pro-life message there you are digging that hole deeper. Comprehend?

“Men regret lost fatherhoood” the way they regret unpaid child support. A real man– and I know a few– have no compunctions about fostering, adopting, Big Brothering, mentoring and volunteering in our country’s schools.

The 1% or so of women who are markedly distressed by their abortion invariably have other stressors operating in their life, and they will focus on the abortion as being the cause of their state of mind in order to avoid facing the more painful problems that underlie it. “Women do regret abortion” is another instance of the magical thinking that marks aborticentrism.

Yeah, Dunkle has the challenge of “death mills” in his chosen avocation; all I had was mothers who cried or beat their kids because they couldn’t deal wtih them. Why couldn’t I have the life with drama? I shoulda been a so-called “pro-lifer.” . . . .

The aborticentric NEEDS the drama; without it, he can’t be a hero. Look at the schlemiel everybody thought Clark Kent was– glasses, narrow tie, wingtips. But with the cape and the tightts, he was a hero!

Similarly, aborticentrics can’t just be seen as angry people harassing pregnant women at a clinic. They have to be incipient murderesses at a death mill, even if they’re actually just there for a Pap smear….

rogelio, in #22: If you’re praying all over the place, you’re putting at risk any credentials you might have as a so-called “pro-lifer.” From the “pro-choice” side, you appear to be misrepresenting yourself firmly with them by omitting to mention you pray in other places; to the other side, you appear to be less than fully committed to their precious “unborns.” Religion and politics don’t mix well.

i consider the people at the soup kitchen, and the kids in the classes, and my seniors all as part of my commitment to the value of life.

the same holds true for the women whom i have had stay with me because they were kicked out because they were pregnant, and my recently new friend that i met after she was coerced into an abortion by her spouse because he was already “hassled” by the three that they had and didn’t want to deal with any more children.

i don’t see why my commitment to life should end at the delivery room door.

but so many choicers think i go to the abortion clinics and no place else.

if they ask me, i will tell them about it, but they seldom ask.

there are some lifers who question my commitment simply because i don’t sit and spew venom to pro-choicers.

but with some of them, their commitment consists of sitting on their asses at the computer, calling people vile names.

they have never opened their hearts or their homes to someone in need.

they don’t offer their time to the causes of children who need stable adult influences.

they never visit nursing homes.

i don’t see these things as political issues. i see them as moral issues.

so i don’t give a penny about credentials.

i care that i am either offering god’s love to others, or i am not.

if i am doing that, it doesn’t matter what people think. if i’m not, then i need to get off my ass and start.

Well, as you point out, rogelio, there is a difference between praying and acting– when you have acted, you have seen the results; when you have prayed, you have felt that you were doing the right thing. Objective vs. subjective results.

Unable to handle the complexities involved in rescuing real humans, so-called “pro-lifers” invent one whose needs are reduced to one– the “unborn human.” They can direct their efforts to achieve just one result: birth.

They need to ignore what will happen to the born child (see: aborticentrism) and unlike people who genuinely care for human life are threatened by charges of callousness.

Since such a charge is a threat to the primitive level at which the so-called “pro-lifer” functions, they respond at that level when threatened, employing ad hominem arguments.

You can chase Chuckles: notice that he doesn’t refer here to young people as “humanoids”; now he calls them “unreal humans,” whatever that means. But he doesn’t run far enough away: what he wants us prolifers (Rog) to do is focus our attention away from the group under attack and focus instead on those whose lives the law protects. I’ve told him first thing first many times, but he doesn’t buy it.

The aborticentric tries to shirk his responsibility to the life he wants born by dodges such as claiming that laws “protect” children. Unfortunately, such “protection” usually comes into play only after the fact of abuse, murder or stultification. It’s much like saying we don’t have to worry about women getting raped because the law “protects” them.

When the public accepts this argument, as it has the “unborn human” and “respecters of life” arguments, it makes the so-called “pro-lifer’s” attempts at a dysfunctional self-therapy a lot easier.

One prominent aborticentric on this site has not yet explained why he cannot care for children not of his family, social circle or religious sect.